Power regenerator vs conditioner

More or less.  The one cool feature some of these are now adding is high noise suppression for the ground wire.

The negative part of regenerators is cost and efficiency.  Some power will always get lost between the AC/DC conversion, storage and AC generation.

A simpler and effective approach would be a BPIT. balanced power isolation transformer. It’s a big ass transformer that runs cool, provides CMR, common mode rejection which cancels out noise and provides isolation from the mains via windings. I’ve had great results with the equitech Q model and the core power units which are lower cost but yield same results, IME 

@craig - I agree with you in that you would think regenerated "perfect" AC would be the better choice, yet so many audiophiles seem to go with the passive conditioners and I'm not sure why.  I myself have an Audience conditioner, which I like very much, but I've never tried a Power Plant.  I don't think cost is the issue as the better conditioners are at least as expensive as the power plants.  

I have owned passive conditioners, active conditioners, balanced transformers and regenerative conditioners. They all offer benefits. They do not sound identical.

The best conditioner we've run into so far are the Elgar conditioners, where were made a long time ago. They actively and dynamically process the AC power, removing distortion, noise and the like, and the output does not have more than 0.5THD at full load. They also regulate line voltage. Any that you find (ebay is the best source I've found so far) will need refurbishment. The only conditioners offered to high end audio that come anywhere close are the ones made by PSAudio.


The best way to use the Elgar in my opinion is to have it wired into the circuit that feeds your audio room. They made a 5000VA unit that can run a 20amp line with no worries. All the Elgars have a cooling fan which means they probably will need to be in a different room. They aren't particularly pretty either, having been made for commercial/industrial applications where clean power was a necessity.